Mayor Yury Luzhkov told Nobel Prize-winning banker Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday that his ideas about microcredit had spurred City Hall to open a program offering quick, small loans to small businesses.

Yunus — a Bangladeshi banker who together with his bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below” — has pushed for the idea of issuing small loans at low interest rates and without collateral to small, predominantly family-run businesses.

Luzhkov said municipal authorities would issue 66,000 loans this year, the largest amounting to 300,000 rubles ($10,500), Interfax reported.

(MT)